Changeling blobs photographed on a landing strut of the Phoenix Mars lander may be the first evidence of liquid water on the red planet. If true, the discovery could hold profound implications for habitability there, since liquid water is considered a prerequisite for life. Scientists believe the blobs may be brine too salty to freeze in the frigid atmosphere at the Phoenix landing site in the Martian arctic, where temperatures did not go above -5F, dipped as low as -140F and averaged about -75F during the mission.
Southwest Airlines on Mar. 26 reached a tentative four-year contract agreement with Transport Workers Union Local 66, which represents more than 9,800 flight attendants at the carrier.
Researchers will explore the physical properties of plasma under a new round of U.S. Air Force studies aimed at finding ways to communicate with hypersonic vehicles through the sheath of plasma generated at speeds above Mach 10.
Neelam Mathews (Bangalore ), Douglas Barrie (Bangalore )
In a turnaround from earlier practice, India’s military is now looking at an off-the-shelf spares exchange program from suppliers as a package with the original equipment purchase.
The Lockheed Martin pilot flying the F-22A that crashed north of Edwards AFB, Calif., apparently did not eject and died from the Mar. 25 crash, according to initial information given to senior U.S. Air Force officials that was obtained by Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Analysts are surprisingly upbeat about prospects for satellite radio but continue to voice concern about the impact of equity and credit collapses on second-generation mobile satphone service.
Chinese officials are dropping more hints that they are about to announce an aircraft carrier program. Defense Minister Liang Guanglie tells his Japanese counterpart, Yasukazu Hamada, that “China cannot be without an aircraft carrier forever.” He adds: “China’s navy is now rather weak. We need to develop an aircraft carrier.”
While the capital awaits President Barack Obama’s reworked defense budget for Fiscal 2010, a missile defense advocate with good Pentagon contacts says he’s hearing the delivery date could slip to May. The administration was expected to deliver its version of the Defense Dept. budget request on Apr. 21, but there is starting to be some buzz that sorting out the money may take longer than planned.
Small satellites have been widely regarded as second-rate by Pentagon and intelligence community officials, who opt for massive, high-technology spacecraft lasting a decade or more in orbit. But the time may finally be at hand for skeptics to begin accepting smaller, simpler systems for some national security missions.
London’s Heathrow Airport last week began using a microwave landing system approved for low-visibility operations. The Thales system was given Category-3 approval earlier in March. Fog and low clouds normally cut the airport’s landing rate to 24 aircraft an hour from 40-plus. British Airways has already fitted most of its Airbus A320s and A321s with the system. The fleet modification is due to be finished by year-end.
The Pakistan air force has taken delivery of one of four Phenom 100 jets it has on order. It intends to use the aircraft to transport government officials. This transaction marks a couple of milestones for the Brazilian manufacturer—the first Embraer delivered to a customer in Pakistan and the first Phenom 100 to be operated by a government.
Members of Britain’s two main aerospace and defense industry lobbying groups—the Defense Manufacturers Assn. and Society of British Aerospace Companies—voted at general meetings last week to merge the organizations, with the new entity to be operational next year.
Launch of the U.S. Air Force’s first Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite on board a Minotaur rocket has slipped as engineers try to ensure that the flight does not suffer the same fate as NASA’s Orbital Carbon Observatory. OCO was lost in February when the fairing on its Orbital Sciences-built Taurus XL rocket failed to open. Orbital also builds the Minotaur, which has a lot of hardware in common with the Taurus, including fairing systems.
Robert Wall (Paris), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
Advances in the range of Hamas and Hezbollah surface-to-surface rockets—and the introduction of new designs—are forcing the Israeli air force (IAF) to confront the reality that it may have to conduct combat operations even while its bases and civilian population centers are under fire.
China’s newly formed challenger to Western defense contractors aims to become a listed, profit-focused company with a revenue target of 160 billion yuan ($23 billion) by 2017. Early hints of the country’s ambitions are now confirmed: Beijing wants a Chinese BAE Systems or Lockheed Martin, a large, integrated supplier of a broad range of weapon systems and military support services for the global market. The new group, provisionally called the Avic Defense Div., is also aiming at enlarging its civil business.
Controllers are checking out GPS IIR‑20, the U.S. Air Force’s latest Global Positioning System satellite, following its early morning liftoff Mar. 24 on a United Launch Alliance Delta II from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla.
SpaceX has been selected for two new Falcon 9 missions, which would raise the number of launches for the company’s larger vehicle under contract to 21. CEO Elon Musk declines to identify the clients, but indicates “they are not U.S. government users” and predicts he will have “more commercial contracts by year’s end.” Musk says the inaugural Falcon 9 flight is planned for this summer, but admits two issues—the fairing and separation systems—could cause it to be delayed. SpaceX recently brought fairing production in-house to prevent schedule and cost slippage.
A Mar. 23 FAA emergency airworthiness directive requires operators of certain Sikorsky S-92A helicopters to replace—before further flight—titanium mounting studs on the main gearbox bowl assembly with steel studs. The move is prompted by Canadian investigators’ discovery of two broken mounting studs on the S-92 that crashed Mar. 12 off Newfoundland, killing all 17 people on board. The emergency AD follows Sikorsky’s Mar. 20 Alert Service Bulletin 92-63-014A, which outlines the replacement procedure.
The Pentagon, in its 2009 report on China’s military power (see p. 34), says it really doesn’t know what that country has in mind for its neighbors and the future. Despite a new, less aggressive government in Taiwan, China continues to build up its arsenal along the nearby coast, specialists note.
Pratt & Whitney has begun two weeks of hover pit tests on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth development center. The tests, which began Mar. 19, have been delayed by high winds and rain but will consume about two weeks of actual constrained flights up to the full 40,000-lb. operational thrust level, says Pratt & Whitney Vice President Bill Gostic, director of F135 engine programs.
Mexico’s low-cost carrier Interjet is planning a 2-hr. biofuel demonstration flight in early 2010 using a CFM International CFM56-powered Airbus A320. The biofuel to be used is derived from salicornia, a type of algae that grows in salt marshes, beaches and among mangroves. It is produced in the northern Mexican state of Sonora and was selected because its feedstock does not compete with potable water. EADS, along with Snecma parent company Safran (part of the CFM consortium), is supporting the $10-million project. The CFM56s will not require modification for the trial.
By the nature of its budget and mission—developing turn-on-a-dime assets for warfighters—the Pentagon’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) initiative might appear to favor government laboratories and small-satellite manufacturers.
Despite the loss of both Model 162 SkyCatcher flying models in about six months, Cessna Aircraft Co. President and CEO Jack J. Pelton says the company remains committed to the light sport aircraft program. The first test aircraft was destroyed in September during aggressive spin testing. The pilot, unable to recover the aircraft from a spin, bailed out unscathed. The second test SkyCatcher was destroyed Mar. 19, when it was engaged in an aggressive power-on and cross-controlled spin test regime. It entered a spin that was not recoverable, according to Pelton.
